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I have the good fortune of being in Florence right now,and see the most amazing looking "Aglio Rosso" garlic at the market. I want to bring some home to grow, but you can only bring peeled cloves. I would end up arriving home about about three days after peeling. It would be about first week of October. I usually plant my cloves late November, but I'd put them in pots right away. It will probably be in the 70's during the day, 50's at night until late November. Heads are 1.5 euro, so not a major loss if it doesn't work. Any thoughts ?

Made it through customs! Planning to soak before planting, since the peels are already off, and I've had a problem with rot.

I found this on the earthboxes forum, which I value, since I grow in earth boxes. I have had a problem with rot, which I assumed was becuase the boxes are too wet in the winter. More recently someone warned me about "white rot".

"Preparing the Garlic for Planting
**Garlic is subject to fungal diseases and pest infestations that can be virtually undetectable until they strike. Prevention is the best way to deal with them. In our experience, garlic that is soaked in certain solutions and with the clove covers peeled off have a better chance of growing free of pathogen or pest.
**When your soil is fully ready to be planted, take the bulbs you want to plant and break them apart into their individual cloves (Being sure to keep each variety separate from others. Soak each varieties' cloves in water containing one heaping tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and liquid seaweed to protect them from fungus as well as give them an energy boost. Leave the cloves in the soda water overnight or long enough for the clove covers to loosen so the liquid comes into contact with the surfaces of the cloves. Garlics clove covers can contain fungal spores, or conidia or the eggs of pests such as mites and are best discarded rather than planted since the first thing the cloves do is to shed them, anyway. The baking soda helps neutralize the fungi. Commercial growers don't have time to peel cloves bare but gardeners do.
**The cloves should then be soaked in rubbing alcohol or 140 proof vodka for three or four minutes and then planted immediately. The alcohol kills pests and pest eggs and any pathogens the first soaking missed. Every time I have done this, the treated garlic turned out better than the untreated control group. Alcohols are on the National Organic Program accepted list and baking soda is accepted..."

I hate to stereotype people unless it is in a good way so I am going to try and stereotype Italians in a good way.
From observations in life I have found not only Italians but many other people in Europe care one heck of a lot more about their food than folks in the US.

If it wasn't for protection tariffs and customs laws China could flood the US market and run what is left of California garlic farmers out of work.
I dont mind free trade and am all for it but not garbage that is of poor quality or out right poison.

I think that is what happened to my garlic last season. I did get garlic but most of it was smaller than normal. The only change I made was adding compost to the mixture which made it heavier than usual and take longer to dry out.

Good to read about soaking it. Thanks for posting that though my garlic is already planted for this year. I planted a few cloves from some store bought garlic that came from Argentina to see how it would do here.

I suppose I have been fortunate because all the years I have grown garlic I just stick the cloves in the ground and they just grow. I leave a lot in the ground and they sprout and grow quite well. This has been happening for years,so I doubt I will change unless problems develops. It is good to have the information though.

Since your cloves are peeled, there's nowhere for the baddies to hide.
I just cracked my garlic to plant tomorrow. I was as careful as could be to choose my best for seed and kept them apart from the others. And most of the cloves have nice tight wrappers and look as perfect as can be.
But sure enough, one or two bulbs had troubles and won't be planted.
One bulb the mites had obviously found their way into the loose wrappers and were having a party. The mites are not as scary as I thought, they aren't flyers and don't move around on invisible threads, just slow very slow crawling, so their damages can be controlled pretty easily (not like spider mites.. aphids!! or thrips..) You can spot them by the rusty orange trail they leave on the wrappers. And see them with a hand lens.

And I had another bulb in my softneck stock with some black mold (looks like) around the base of the cloves. Not gonna risk planting that either.

I think I may try the alcohol dip for the stock that had the mite problem, in case there was any transfer.